Falling in Love With You
by Youhaveabadconnection
Summary: First comes love, then comes marriage, right? Right?   Series of Drabbles
1. The Future?

_A/N: So I'm on leave after surgery, and I'm hoping to get this done before I go back, on Monday. It's a series of one-shots, and i'm going to try to keep them in order, I hope._

_Enjoy!_

Their courtship had been pitifully short. Once the rest of Berk had realized the affection between the Chief's son and the ship-makers daughter, marriage had been implied. Less than three weeks after Hiccup had woken to find Astrid Hoffersdóttir standing in the Great Room with her parents and younger brother. He stumbled his way over to his father and looked at Astrid. And did a double-take. She was in a dress! He'd never seen her in a dress. It suited her small frame, the light blue accenting her eyes and making her hair glow.

"Son! Hoffer here has a wonderful suggestion! You and Astrid seem to be well acquainted, and since it's high time both of you took to marriage, so we've decided to make her your new bride!" Stoick looked extremely proud of himself; he's listened to his son after all, hadn't he? Not stuck him with some fat old cow who would boss him around all his days? Not, Stoick thought, that live with Hoffers daughter would be easy, just enough of a challenge to keep him on his toes.

Hiccup couldn't believe this was happening. He hadn't even been able to take her on a real date yet, and their families were planning marriage? Someone was rushing this just a little bit. "Dad," he started, attempting to head his father off at the pass, but Stoick was having none of it. "No, son, this is perfect, and you're both of age, what's to argue?" Stoick pulled Hoffer and his wife out of the room.

Hiccup and Astrid stared at each other. In truth, Astrid wasn't surprised or too worried; besides her obvious affection for the dragon-tamer, this was a smart match, and at least he wasn't some old, hairy widower. She walked up to him, "whatever happens, this is a good thing, okay?"

Hiccup nodded, perhaps joining the two of them wouldn't be such a bad thing after all.

_A/N: R&R please, I realise the rating is high right now, but later chapters will be less appropriate for younger audiences, and I'll try to let you know in advance. Thanks!_


	2. Learning About US

_A/N: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who put this on their favorite or alert list! It means so much to me! The first couple of paragraphs of this chapter have some mature content in them, but i'd like to keep this fairly accurate, and I know the practice I described below is still used today in some societies where a woman's virtue is her greatest possession. ENJOY!_

Astrid stood in the middle of her parent's house, cheeks red with embarrassment. She'd forgotten this part of the betrothal. Hiccup and his father were outside, while her mother and the healer were inside, checking her "suitability" as a bride to the town's hero. Her clothing had been removed as the healer paced around her, checking for any deformities or corruption of her body. There was none, she knew, training had helped her grow straight and evenly, though she knew she was too muscular for the healers child-bearing tastes. She felt herself being laid on the floor, and the healer spread her legs. Astrid covered her face in embarrassment. It wasn't uncommon for a woman to lose her veil in training, or her dragon riding, although it certainly dropped her bride-price.

When the healer had finished her examination, and Astrid had redressed, the men were brought in, and the healer declared her sound for marriage to such an important man. At this, Hiccup had refused to look at her, embarrassed to be thought of as a _man. _More importantly, an _important man_. The adults had left the room at that point, leaving two extremely nervous teens alone for the first time since Hiccup had woken. Astrid turned from him and picked up her axe, when she looked back, he was watching her sheepishly. ``wanna go for a ride?" He asked.

When they arrived at the bedding area for the dragons, she'd been disappointed to see her Nadder, Larsa, was missing. "No problem, come with Toothless and I," Hiccup offered, and Astrid climbed behind, wrapping her arms around the young man.

They made a quick flight, back to the small sinkhole where the two heroes had first met. Astrid slid off Toothless and went to sit by the waters edge. She made no response when Hiccup came to sit beside her. "I'm sorry," he offered. "I didn't know you had to go through with that. That's gotta be embarrassing."

Astrid glanced at him and smiled. "It's not your fault, none of this was really your idea. Besides, it's not like I haven't done something even more embarrassing in front of the entire village."

"You haven't. That's my job," Hiccup deadpanned, earning a small laugh from the blond at his side. He began to relax; it had been nearly a month since they'd been forced into this farce, he wasn't sure why the entire village wanted to see him married, anyway. "Look, I'm sorry you're being forced into this, I'm sure I wouldn't be your first choice of husband, especially with," Hiccup motioned to his missing limb. "I'm not exactly the catch of the day, am I?"

Astrid looked at him incredulously. "You're kidding, right? There isn't single woman between the age of six and sixty who wouldn't want to be your wife right now."

"Until I single handedly destroy half the village again."

"Haha, no. Maybe you don't see how much you've improved our lives. No more raids, new friends we can count on, we don't have to worry about food, and travelling over the winter will be so much easier!" Astrid paused, embarrassed. "And it's not that I wouldn't want to marry you, it's just that I wanted to do it my way."

Hiccup leaned back on his elbows and watched the sun glitter in her hair. "So what would be your way, Astrid?"

"Well, I'd be married on one of the warmest days of fall, instead of winter solstice, and only close friends would be there. We'd marry in the woods, alone, and return to the village for one of the biggest parties Berk has ever seen." Hiccup smiled at the far-away look he saw on her face. "and we'd fly away on our dragons at the end of the night, off to our own place to, to, well, spend the night." She flushed slightly, thinking of all that that night would include. She turned to look back at him, her arms wrapped around her legs. He was smiling wistfully at her. "Of course," she continued. "That won't happen because you're the Chief's son and town hero, so we'll end up having the biggest wedding known to Vikings near and far, and everyone's going to enjoy just a little too much mead, and the flowers in my hair will be dead by the time we make it back to our house." Astrid chuckled, she knew she was right.

"yeah, and Dad and Gobber will get drunk and emotional, and tell you of all of the embarrassing things you weren'taround to watch." Astrid laughed delightedly, and Hiccup had no choice to laugh with her. Suddenly, they weren't engaged, or the town heroes or even the future chief; they were just two teenagers who had come a long way together, and were totally comfortable in each others presence, and they spent the rest of the daylight hours laughing and talking about nothing. And yet, they conveyed absolutely everything.

_A/N: There ya go! Hope you enjoy this chapter, it's almost triple the length of the last one, and I hope to put up a new chapter in a few days!_


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